XXXVIII

Catelyn and the envoy of a hundred soldiers passed easily through the mountains of the Vale. It was at the Bloody Gate where their journey came to an unsettling turn. They were commanded to halt before the gate, the Knight standing high on the parapet and demanding they state their business in the Vale of Arryn.

"We accompany Lady Catelyn Stark," Smalljon Umber announced in his deep and booming voice. "The mother of King Robb Stark and sister of Lady Lysa Arryn."

"My lady," the Knight of the Gate said, voice echoing in the broad ravine. "May I offer my condolences. Lady Arryn is dead."

The Smalljon and the personal guard turned ashen faces towards Catelyn, who kept her head held high despite the harrowing sorrow that shined in her eyes.

"How many days since?" she asked, a faint quiver in her strong voice.

"Nearly six, my lady," he replied. He turned back to the gate. "Let them pass."

So they passed through the gate, Catelyn hanging her head low as they began their long ascent up the mountain. She hardly spoke as they rode, though admittedly she hadn't said much over the long journey. When they made camp along the road as evening began to fall, Dacey Mormont came over to offer her food.

"Lady Stark?" she asked gently. Her voice was so gruff, and she was so used to being so vulgar among the men, she felt as though she were speaking to a child to keep her voice so low. Catelyn looked up with heavy eyes. "I have your supper for you, my Lady."

Catelyn let out a breath slowly, the shake in it nearly indiscernible. "Thank you, Dacey."

"In the morning, we will send a raven to King Robb to inform him of your sister's death," she continued. Catelyn snapped her head up.

"Don't!" she barked, voice hoarse. "Anybody could shoot it down on its way. We've no idea what the Lannisters would do with information like this. No…wait until we reach the Eyrie. At least then, I might have some idea of what to do."

Dacey nodded her head. "As you wish, my Lady."

For the short remainder of the trip, Catelyn was mostly left alone. She kept her head bowed except for when they reached the doors of the Eyrie, when she raised her head proudly and declared in a stony voice that she was Catelyn Stark, sister of the late Lady Arryn and aunt of the Lord of the Eyrie. Until – no, they replied, for Petyr Baelish was Lord of the Eyrie. When Dacey turned to Catelyn in shock, she spotted rage shining in the woman's eyes, boiling just beneath the surface of Catelyn's polite façade. She said nothing, and the guards let them in.

The rage remained as they dismounted, as they were led through the halls of the Eyrie to the throne room where it was said that Lord Baelish awaited them. The doors opened with a high-pitched shriek, and their footsteps echoed hollowly in the open hall. It was brighter and colder than when Catelyn was here last. She paused and her guards paused behind and around her.

"Catelyn," said Petyr with a reverence that sent uncomfortable shivers down their spines. "I was so happy to hear –"

"Sansa?" Catelyn stepped forward, brow furrowing when she caught sight of the dark-haired, willowy young woman who stepped out of the archway behind the throne.

"Mother?"

Sansa hurried down the stairs and Catelyn met her halfway, enveloping her daughter in her arms and holding her close to her chest. Sansa wept into her mother's hair, and Catelyn turned to face Petyr. He was watching them with something akin to pride in his eyes, a genuine happiness that was marred by something else beneath.

"You kept her safe?"

"She did not kill Joffrey," he replied. His smile betrayed the words unsaid: but I might have. "I knew the Lannisters would not care."

"Thank you," Catelyn said, and meant it with every fiber of her being. "Thank you."

"I only wish," Petyr continued after a moment, meandering towards them, "that I could have protected Lysa as well."

Catelyn felt her heart harden. She kept her mouth in a firm line and no longer had anything nice to say to him.

"The bard, Marillion…such a vile man. He'd tried to get close to Lysa, to touch her." Catelyn shifted her body to put herself between Sansa and Petyr as he began to wander up the steps. "I only wish I could have come in sooner…perhaps…. But there's no use in dwelling too deeply over the past, is there? Come. Let's get you situated before we gather for supper."

He turned back to the entrance, waving his hand and motioning for his guards to do away with Catelyn's guards. He led both mother and daughter back up the stairs, towards Sansa's chambers. Catelyn held tight to her daughter as they walked, occasionally running a soothing hand through her daughter's hair. It was dyed dark, no longer the pale orange she so loved. But this was the least of Catelyn's worries.

"You may stay here for now," Petyr said. "I'll soon have another – nicer – room prepared for you."

"No," Catelyn cut in with a resolute shake of her head. "Here is fine. Sansa is my daughter, she and I don't mind sharing a room. And for now, we ought to freshen up for dinner. I've had such a long journey."

"Of course," said Petyr, bowing his head and stepping back. "I'll come fetch you myself when dinner is prepared."

Catelyn watched him walk down the hall a moment before the shut and latched the door behind him. Turning back, she gathered Sansa in her arms again, hushing her gently and kissing her forehead.

"Has he treated you well?" she asked softly. Sansa nodded, swallowing thickly.

"He took me away from the wedding. Everybody thinks I did it – but I didn't do it, I didn't poison him. Lord Baelish took me away from there."

"Good. We'll soon enough have you home. Robb and Ella are at Casterly Rock right now, but you and I will go to Riverrun to wait out the war. When Robb's men have taken back Winterfell, then we'll go home."

"It won't be the same," Sansa said, voice so fragile that Catelyn forgot it was a young woman standing before her and not the little girl she'd known.

"Of course not, my dear girl," she said sadly, brushing Sansa's dark hair away from her face. "But it will be Winterfell."

"Lord Baelish married Aunt Lysa," she said softly, though there was a hard edge growing in her voice. Her tone made Catelyn narrow her eyes. "She loved him."

Now, Catelyn kept her voice especially low. "Sansa," she whispered, "you must tell me the truth. Did Marillion kill Lysa?"

Sansa's eyes flickered, red-rimmed, and she took a shaking breath.

"It was Lord Baelish," she whispered, sad and angry, "he told her he loved you and he pushed her through the Moon Door."

Catelyn breathed out a long, terrible breath, before pulling her shaking daughter to her chest and running a hand over her hair.

"Shh," she soothed. "Petyr Baelish has been trouble to us for long enough. Soon, we won't have to worry about him anymore."

She accompanied Sansa to supper, sitting across from Lord Baelish and young Robin, making small talk with Lord Baelish whilst Robin played with his food. He told them how happy he was that they were all there, together, and Catelyn sipped her wine to keep from retching. When dinner ended, he had offered to escort Catelyn back to the chambers she and Sansa would share, but Catelyn snatched Robin's hand and declined, offering to ready the boy for bed.

She tucked him up warm, humming to him gently when he demanded a song of her. He was not a very sweet boy, but any child becomes sensitive when they're moments away from sleep. When she had lulled him, she took his hand.

"Sweetrobin?" she asked. "You love your family, don't you?"

"I loved Mother," he said softly.

"Do you love Lord Baelish?"

There, she hesitated, blinking sleepily. "Mother loved Lord Baelish. Lord Baelish said he loved her. He gives me presents often."

"What if..." Catelyn began, choosing her words carefully. "What if you were Lord of the Vale, instead of Lord Baelish? Would you like that?"

Robin's eyes widened, and he nodded excitedly.

"Now, you must understand, Robin, Lord Baelish will go away forever if you become Lord of the Vale."

Robin thought about it for scarcely a moment before nodding again. "I want to be Lord of the Vale, Aunt Catelyn."

"Then in the morning," she said, "you must tell the Maester to call the banners. It will show everyone you are powerful enough to rule the Eyrie. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Aunt Catelyn," he said, cuddling down into his blankets. She ran a hand over his head, torn between feelings of guilt and victory as she watched her nephew drift into sleep.

"Goodnight then, Robin."

She stood and returned to the chambers she shared with Sansa, holding her daughter and staring into the fire with dread and hope warring in her heart. And that morning, the sun illuminated the wings of the ravens as they departed from the Eyrie, bearing the words that would raise the armies of the Vale, and Petyr Baelish woke with his hands in irons.

I do not like Petyr Baelish. I also do not like how season 5 is going thus far. Sansa – or, as I like to call her, Sansa Stark My One True Love – deserves so much better from the show writers. Regardless, I'm very glad to have control of her here, and to be able to get her back with her family! I was listening to the Game of Thrones soundtrack, as I often do while I write, and really dark and ominous tracks kept coming on, I felt like I should be writing a murder plot twist. Which would be cool, maybe, if I didn't want to wrap this up in as few chapters as possible, but I'm really itching to get this done – and soon.

Anyways….I'm sorry this chapter is shit. And short. This chapter was sitting there for so long begging me to make it better, and I kept saying, "Sorry bro, I dunno how to make you better." There are just some chapters that are tough to get out, you know? I would have spent more time on this chapter and tried to make it better, but I'm trying to set a deadline for myself as to when I have these done. I hope you can all forgive me! I promise I'll spend more time on the next chapters to make them better and more enjoyable.

This weekend I'm really going to try to write my little ass off and finish this. I graduate next week and my goal was to get this done before I graduate, but if not then at least I want to get this done before May is over. I've only got three chapters left to write, so I'm feeling pretty good about getting them done over the weekend. But we'll see!

Thanks to DarylDixon'sLover, darkwolf76, saderia, HermioneandMarcus, and Whitwhit1893 for the reviews! I appreciate your support so very, very much! I know this chapter wasn't the best, but I hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit, and I promise I'll work very hard to make the next chapters better!

Until next time,

Rex